{"nrhp_refnum":"80000843","name":"Johnson-Taylor Ranch Headquarters","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E of San Diego and Black Mountain Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Diego","county":"San Diego County","state":"CA","lat":32.938485876000044,"lon":-117.13918127628178,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-10-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A ranch headquarters complex in Penasquitos Canyon, east of San Diego, California, centered on a U-shaped adobe and wood ranch house begun in 1862 with several outbuildings, on Rancho de los Penasquitos.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the ranch house is one of the few surviving adobe ranch houses from the great nineteenth-century ranchos, with original fabric largely intact. The site lies on San Diego County's earliest land grant and is linked to George Alonzo Johnson, J. S. Taylor and later ranchers. The complex is also described as having high potential for archeological information.","narrative":"Johnson-Taylor Ranch Headquarters is a cluster of adobe, wood and stone buildings in Penasquitos Canyon, east of San Diego. George Alonzo Johnson, a Colorado River steamboat businessman who married into the Alvarado family, began the adobe ranch house in 1862. Over the following years west and south wings were added to form a U around a courtyard, and outbuildings such as a stone spring house, reservoirs and a water tank followed. In the 1880s J. S. Taylor remodeled the house into a hotel. A fire in 1911-12 destroyed much of the wood portions, and C. F. Mohnike rebuilt them in 1913 and added the present barn. The property sits on the first land grant in San Diego County. It is regarded as significant because few nineteenth-century adobe ranch houses remain, and this one keeps its basic design and original fabric. San Diego County acquired the surrounding area in 1974 as part of a regional park.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"George Alonzo Johnson","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"County-owned and listed as unoccupied; a caretaker boards and rehabilitates race horses on site. The adobe portions are described as well preserved, while roofs and porches are deteriorated and the county has stabilized them.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.036314-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/80000843.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000843/24bbba63f3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000843/24bbba63f3-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":null,"credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COURTYARD_FROM_SOUTHEAST_-_Johnson-Taylor_Ranch_House,_Black_Mountain_Road_vicinity,_Rancho_Penasquitos,_San_Diego_County,_CA_HABS_CAL,37-RANPE,1-3.tif\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COURTYARD_FROM_SOUTHEAST_-_Johnson-Taylor_Ranch_House,_Black_Mountain_Road_vicinity,_Rancho_Penasquitos,_San_Diego_County,_CA_HABS_CAL,37-RANPE,1-3.tif"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123860894","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9066582"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-diego-county/johnson-taylor-ranch-headquarters-80000843/"}